Protecting Brands by Best-in-Class Cybersecurity. Growing Brands through Custom Apps, Managed IT & Cloud. Spreading Awareness as Security Keynote Speaker & Cyber Crime Junky.
(c) 2022 David Mauro
Risk. Successful leaders understand risk.
They understand cybercrime and the risk it poses-or they need to in order to remain in leadership in any sustainable way. Leaders today in business, education, non-profits, state, local and federal government care about cybercrime. Most know they need to change their past tactics at preventing it and most simply do not know how they can afford to do what is needed, what priorities to set and in what order.
After all we are talking about our beloved Technology. That river that flows through every aspect of a modern organization today. From email, intellectual property, drawings, video, customer invoices, contracts, you name it, and it is digitized.
While most organizations could obviously benefit in evolving in their “digital transformation” journey, we cannot ignore the elephant in the room.
The large daunting new existence: RISK.
There is a lot of noise today, from social media, news, war, mobile technology and more. Risks come from all angles, but successful leaders cut though the noise. Successful leaders see from where the biggest risk stems. An attack on everything that matters: your data. The intellectual property, bank funds, credit, employee, and customer private information and more. It’s all at risk and targeted daily.
Successful and sustainable leaders place combatting cybersecurity risk at the top of their priorities since doing otherwise becomes fruitless and against your own interests both financially and an operational sense.
Why would a strong leader ever invest in more operations, real estate…or production before investing in protecting the brand from complete destruction?
Priorities have shifted. It’s been a forced shift, but a shift, nonetheless.
TODAY WE ARE DIGITIZED
Unlike the way we all conducted business operations 20 years ago, today we are beholden to being online in large part. Back in the day we used to essentially have two different versions of our operations, one in physical reality and one on computer. If the systems were down, we could still function: payroll was met, sales deals were closed, initiatives didn’t fall off track and so on.
Today is different. Everything an organization does today has a digital component to it, unless of course you’re in an industry or part of the world with limited access in which case you likely are not here reading this.
MANAGING THE RISK
Leaders are well aware of the risks that cybercrime poses to them daily. Every single day when an employee gets online: a new risk occurs. Yet, they cannot function without leveraging advances in technology in the modern workplace.
This is why we exist and why Cybersecurity Services are a needed line-item in every budget this year, next year and beyond. Go cheap and your brand risks not being in existence no matter how much revenue you generate or how big or small the organization is.
No Brand is too big to fail….nor too small to be missed by cybercriminals.
No brand is too big to fail or be destroyed by a devastating reputation-damaging breach. Likewise, no brand is too small to be missed or overlooked. The SMB space is a key target as they often do not implement fundamentals protections that can thwart most attacks.
After all, this is a matter of Risk Management. The Risk will always be there, but managing that risk and taking concrete steps to mitigate is something leadership is aware of.
And if not aware or if they do not care and fund it, then we will see them in the news as their doors slowly shutter, sooner or later.
While possibly sounding harsh, it is reality. As a successful leader, adapting to change, growing and managing risk are essential elements of Grit and strong leadership.
SET CYBERSECURITY PRIORITIES – ASK FOR HELP
Cybersecurity is not the responsibility of the CIO. It’s the responsibility of the C-Suite. Top leadership own, founded or manage the brand. When a breach destroys the trust customers have in the organization then the brand is irreparably harmed. That accountability does not solely fall into the lap of the top tech person. Sure they may have the team to manage systems and infrastructure but it’s the executive leaders who set funding, priorities and place security top of mind into the culture.
Those who run the culture of an organization actually own the responsibility for cybersecurity.
If you don’t know what steps to take, or which priorities to set this year, then simply get help. Contact your IT advisor or get an independent holistic perspective on your state of risk from our team at All Covered-Konica Minolta, a Top 10 rated Cybersecurity Firm globally, located right here in the US.
David Mauro
Regional Manager
All Covered, IT Services from Konica Minolta Business Solutions, US
Contact David Mauro and the All Covered Team to learn more. @dmauro@allcovered.com
